Good News: Progressive Wins In California Despite Israeli Money

In case you hadn’t caught it yet: progressive Aisha Wahab has been elected to Congress in a special election in San Francisco’s East Bay area.

Wahab is a Muslim woman and Afghan American, who will be the first Afghan American member of the US Congress.

United Democracy Project, a super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent nearly $6.4 million since early August to boost her rival Melissa Hernandez. Wahab has described Israel’s brutal war in Gaza as genocide . She reported that there had been a sudden surge of critical ads that had misrepresented her record. She described the Super Pacs’ involvement as election interference, and said they were attempting to buy the seat.

The Democratic establishment also moved against her, when congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chair of California’s Democratic delegation, endorsed Hernandez.

The progressive wing of the party, however, strongly supported Wahab. The former chair of the progressive caucus of the California Democratic party, Amar Shergill, came out strongly in her favor.

Born to Afghan refugees in New York City, Wahab was raised in Fremont, California, and has a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California. She worked in nonprofit organizations and consulting before entering politics. Upon being elected to the Hayward City Council in 2018, she became one of the first Afghan Americans elected to public office in the US. She was elected to the California State Senate in 2022.

Wahab takes over a seat whose clock had partially run down, so she and Hernandez will again face each other in November. The winner of that election will hold the congressional seat for a full two-year term.

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